This invention relates to electronic learning aids, teaching machines and electronic training aids. More specifically, this invention relates to an electronic teaching apparatus which utilizes an overlay having a plurality of printed pictorial representations thereon in conjunction with a programmable keyboard disposed therebeneath, wherein means for producing synthesized speech is provided as a component of the electronic teaching apparatus for verbally requesting an operator, such as a child or a person with limited intellectual skills, to identify one of the pictorial representations by appropriately touching a particular pictorial representation on the overlay at a location overlying that portion of the keyboard associated with the specific pictorial representation chosen by the operator as his answer.
The prior art suggests various techniques for implementing electronic learning aids to be utilized by young children or those having only rudimentary reading skills. One example of such a learning aid may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,795,989, wherein a keyboard controller with numerous pictorial displays is utilized to control a tone generator so that a proper sequence of pictorial inputs may be utilized to generate a simple tune. A major disadvantage of systems of this type is that they may not be easily utilized with small children having little or no reading ability, since the sequence of pictorial displays required to generate a proper tune is presented in written form. Another example of electronic learning aids designed for use by operators with only rudimentary reading skills may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,857. The electronic learning aid of U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,857 utilizes a flexible overlay placed on a top of a network of conducting elements. The flexible overlay has printed upon it a plurality of pictorial representations and has a number of conducting areas on the opposite side. A teacher or instructor must then request that the student select a particular pictorial representation. Upon depression of the flexible overlay in the area of the correct pictorial representation, contact of the aforementioned conducting area with the conducting elements beneath causes a lamp to be energized and a buzzer to buzz. This system requires that the teacher or instructor know before hand which pictorial representation has a conducting area on the opposite side and only those pictorial representations with conducting areas can be considered correct responses.
Electronic learning aids of general character have been equipped with audio means, wherein the audio means is a prerecorded series of spoken messages relating to the subject matter on which the operator of the learning aid is to be tested. In such instances, the audio means often takes the form of a tape recorder.
The prior are suggests various techniques for synthesizing human speech from digital data. For instance, some of the techniques used are briefly described in "Voice Signals: Bit by Bit" at pp. 28-34 of the October 1973 issue of IEEE Spectrum. An important technique for synthesizing human speech, and the technique used by the speech synthesizer chip of the electronic teaching apparatus described herein, is called linear predictive coding. For a detailed discussion of this technique, see "Speech Analysis and Synthesis by Linear Prediction of the Speech Wave" by B. S. Atal and Suzanne L. Hanauer which appears at pp. 637-50 of Vol. 50 No. 2 (Part II) of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (Apr. 1971).
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 905,328, filed May 12, 1978, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,844 issued June 24, 1980, a lattice filter for generating digital signals useful in producing synthesized human speech and capable of being implemented on a single semiconductor chip is described. The learning aid described herein makes use of the lattice filter described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,844.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved electronic teaching apparatus having particular applicability to young children or persons with limited intellectual skills, wherein a speech synthesizer is a component thereof and interacts with an overlay having a plurality of pictorial representations thereon as disposed on a programmable keyboard in audibly requesting an operator to identify one of the pictorial representations by selective touching of the overlay.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved electronic teaching apparatus for teaching object identification via selective touching of pictorial representations, wherein a speech synthesizer is a component thereof for audibly requesting the identification of a particular object from a plurality of objects appearing as pictorial representations in which the electronic circuits included in the speech synthesizer are implemented as integrated circuits on miniature semiconductor chips so that the entire electronic teaching apparatus can be constructed as a hand-held portable device.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved electronic teaching apparatus having particular applicability to young children or persons with limited intellectual skills and equipped with a speech synthesis device for audibly requesting an operator to identify a particular object via an operator input in the form of selective touching of a specific pictorial representation on an overlay having a plurality of pictorial representations appearing thereon and disposed on a programmable keyboard, wherein the speech synthesis device further audibly comments upon the accuracy of the operator input through selective accessing of digital data stored in a memory and from which synthesized speech may be derived.